1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a charging system and a charging method for the use of a battery pack used as a power source of an information processing device.
2. Description of Related Art
In a business making profits by providing network services, like charges for telephone calls, for example, for users of portable telephones, the user""s initial expense, such as the cost of the information device like a telephone set, is often suppressed for the purpose of acquiring as many users as possible. In this case, the sale of information devices itself will often produce a loss.
In the above-mentioned case, the compensation for a battery pack used as the power source of the information device is recovered by selling the battery pack as hardware. In case such a compensation recovery system is used, there arises the problem that it is difficult to maintain a reasonable price of the battery pack.
Once the battery pack is sold as hardware, there is a great possibility that the battery pack, after use, is disposed as waste and contaminates the environment. Additionally, this is undesirable also from the viewpoint of effective use of resources.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a charging system and a charging method for use of battery power, which can maintain an appropriate compensation for a battery power used as the power source of a portable information device, for example, and contributes to preventing environmental contamination and effective use of resources.
According to the first aspect of the invention, there is provided a charging system for consumption of battery power characterized in automatically charging for consumption of battery power of a battery pack used as the power source of an information device, by using a predetermined information line.
According to the second aspect of the invention, there is provided a charging method for consumption of battery power characterized in automatically charging for consumption of battery power of a battery pack used as the power source of an information device, by using a predetermined information line.
According to the invention summarized above, it is possible to collect the compensation for use of a battery power by charging a user for power actually used with an information device instead of selling a battery power pack itself.